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Pasco Deputies: Man Said He Tried To Kill Ailing Wife

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By LISA A. DAVIS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 12, 2008

HOLIDAY - A 69-year-old Holiday man gave his ailing wife three sleeping pills last week, hoping she would never wake up again, Pasco County sheriff's officials say.

She lived, and this week her husband ended up in jail.

John McKim told Pasco detectives he planned to kill his wife and then stab himself to death, according to his arrest affidavit.

He gave his three Restoril pills and wrote a note to his wife's children, saying she had "suffered enough pain and problems and we cannot take anymore any longer."

The note also had a burial request.

But after McKim's wife, Claire, fell asleep, he changed his mind and called a doctor for help. Pasco deputies monitored telephone calls between McKim and the doctor and McKim and his stepson, during which McKim told them he was trying to kill his wife, a report states.

A detective interviewed his wife, who said her husband routinely gives her food through her feeding tube at their home but she didn't know he wanted her to die, the affidavit states.

The wife told Detective Michelle March she doesn't want to die and is now afraid of her husband and doesn't want contact with him.

McKim, of 3300 Hearthstone Court, was arrested Tuesday at Community Hospital in New Port Richey on a charge of battery on a person 65 or older.

He is being held without bail at the Land O' Lakes Jail.

Sheriff's office spokesman Kevin Doll said the reason McKim was charged with battery rather than attempted murder is because he sought help.

It wasn't immediately clear why his wife is sick or what her condition is now.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083.

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